The Buried History Job
by Katharen Silver
Summary: Just a random thought, Parker comes face to face with pain from her past.
1. Part of Parker's Past

A/N: Just a random scene that came to me, while I was thinking about all the  
>things that the Leverage team hasn't told eachother.<p>

Disclaimer: Not mine :(

I stood frozen, my eyes wide with terror. The pressure in my chest spread, as  
>quickly as the high of jumping off buildings normally rushed through me. The<br>sensation held me in place. I couldn't even remember to care that my team was  
>watching me, all of them carefully trying to decide how to react to my very<br>unParkerish behavior. I could feel the weight of their eyes on me, but their  
>presence barely registered. Everything in me was focused on the man standing<br>before us. It was the weight of his eyes that had me standing frozen on the  
>sidewalk. He was the monster from my dreams- the one that drove me off of<br>every building I jumped from.

He was in his late sixties now, hair almost gone from his head, having  
>migrated to his face in the form of a silver beard. The only things that had<br>remained the same were his eyes; the ice blue eyes that had haunted me since I  
>was a child. The eyes I thought I had finally escaped from had found me<br>again.

"Anna?" The same slippery voice that still shocked me awake in cold shakes and  
>screams slid across my skin, and I shivered lightly. The weight in my chest<br>fell to my stomach, making me heave, as he asked, "Darling? Is that you?"

Suddenly, I was six years old again, with no way to escape. A long past  
>nightmare reawakened in the flesh.<p>

"Anna, come here!"

It was a command; he would not tolerate me disobeying. Still, I felt myself  
>shake my head slowly as I took a tentative step away, a scream rising in my<br>throat. I wasn't six years old anymore. I wasn't a child, I could run now. She  
>can escape.<p>

I watched as his hateful eyes darkened.

"No." The word was little more than a whisper passing from my lips, but I had  
>said it, and it gave me new strength. "No!"<p>

His hand shot out to reach for me, and I stumbled away, surprised by the sound  
>of a scream coming from my mouth.<p>

The others were there instantly; I had forgotten they were there, but the rush  
>of relief was immediate. Elliot and Nate had him pinned to the sidewalk in<br>seconds, while Hardison stood between us. I caught a glimpse of his eyes, and  
>was shocked by the hate flaring in them. Sophie stood beside me, pulling me<br>into a warm hug.

"It's alright, Parker, you're safe. It's alright," Sophie cooed, brushing a  
>few stray blond hairs out of my face. She was right, and I wanted to tell her<br>so, but I couldn't. It was only then that I realized my screams had subsided  
>into sobs.<p> 


	2. Part two of Parker's Past

Chapter Two:

A/N: The second section to "Part of Parker's Past".

Disclaimer: Still not mine

The silence echoing in the small flat felt thick enough to cut with a knife. All of the questions that they hadn't asked seemed to pile onto my already aching chest. My back was to all of them, my way of trying to keep them out of something that, despite my denial, they were already in. I could feel their careful eyes all burning with curiosity; worry flickered from face to face before resting on me again.

'What are you waiting for?' I wanted to demand into the quite room. How much worse could their questions be than this impenetrable silence? How long had we sat like this, how many hours since my shaking stopped, and my tears dried into stained streaks down my face?

Sophie's soft hand still clung to mine, drawing small circles on the back, but holding on as if afraid to let go. Despite her death grip on me, she sat as silently as the others, all watching but none of them brave enough to ask the question they are all thinking.

My eyes had settled hours ago on something I could barely see outside the window. Part of me was ready to run; I had done it so many times before surely it wouldn't be hard. I could be gone long before they even realized it. The thief in me, the Parker that had survived so long on my own was ready to run. She had the escape route planned; the things to grab on the way out, and the tracks to cover so no one, not even Hardison could find her. Despite all her plans, I sat very still holding the hand of a woman that just a few years ago I would never have trusted.

I'm not sure what made me do it, perhaps the silence had gotten too heavy to stand, or I couldn't bear starring into oblivion one more second. What ever it was I chanced a glance at them over my shoulder. Surprise and a different kind of pain hit me all at once. The four of them all starred without really looking at anyone or anything. Each of them lost in their own pasts and their own nightmares. The silence was no kinder to them than it was to me.

Elliot's eyes were cold like stone, and his hands were clenched into fists so tight that his knuckles had turned white. He wasn't here in this room; he was a thousand miles away, doing things that he would never tell us about.

Hardison was stiff watching the floor, waiting for it to open and swallow him whole. His eyes glazed over with a shadow that he manage to hide from everyone. Or maybe we let him hide it, so we could hide our own.

Nate's eyes were glossy his face etched with pain. His monsters were not of what he had done, but of what he couldn't do. I'd seen that look a dozen times; it was the look that told me if a shot had been within reach he would have taken it without thinking. His mind was far away from me, from us, and instead it was with a child that he couldn't save.

Sophie's eyes were the ones that surprised me the most. Her perfect control had slipped away and her eyes glittered from unshed tears. Her face was open showing all the pain, fear, regrets, and loss that she always hid behind her mask. They were there with such startling clarity that I wondered how I had never noticed it before.

I squeezed her hand tightly, calling her out of her memories, and drawing her eyes back to my face.

"Can we order pizza?" My voice was softer than I'd expected, it sounded broken even in my own ears, but it brought a small smile to her face.

"Pepperoni?" She asked.

I nodded my head vigorously and returned her smile.

"Meat lovers," Elliot murmured awakening from a nightmare that he would never really feel absolution from.

"No, supreme," Hardison said shaking his head, as he too came awake to the room, leaving his past where it belonged, even for just this moment.

The two bickered about which pizza to order, as Nate slowly met my eyes. The pain that I had seen hadn't gone away entirely it was still there along with the questions he hadn't asked me yet. I knew watching him that it wasn't over. He would ask, they all would, but not now. Not yet.

For a few more moments the five of us would pretend that what we had here was all there was. As if we hadn't buried ourselves when we came into this group, and started down a path that none of us were prepared for.


End file.
